


carpe diem, carpe noctem, carpe vitam

by dreadfulbeauties



Category: Faust - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Crossover, Foreshadowing, Gen, Humor, also some faustopheles, madohomu isn't really IN the fic but it's discussed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:53:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27921067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreadfulbeauties/pseuds/dreadfulbeauties
Summary: Two deceivers meet and have a chat. Perhaps it goes against all time and logic, but stranger things have happened.
Relationships: Akemi Homura/Kaname Madoka
Comments: 5
Kudos: 15





	carpe diem, carpe noctem, carpe vitam

The creature staring up at Mephistopheles looks like an odd cross between a fox, a cat, and a rabbit with very floppy ears. He stares up at with empty red eyes, little lips set in a permanent close-mouthed smile. His fur is white, save for a few tints of soft pink here and there. Most humans, Mephistopheles thinks, would probably gush over this creature and coo over how cute he is. Of course with him not being human at all, he knows in an instant what this creature is and what he stands for.

“I didn’t think I’d come across an Incubator,” he says. 

_We never suspected that the Devil himself actually existed. But it seems as though we’re all encountering impossibilities as of late._

“I suppose so.”

It has been centuries, and the memory of his beloved doctor sits beautifully fresh and clear in his mind. He was rather fond of him — as a toy? Or as a person? Mephistopheles doesn’t know the difference and doesn’t care to distinguish — but alas, the time he spent with Faust as his was cut dreadfully short. He was given salvation in the end and that damns Mephistopheles. At least he has the memories.

He sits upon the rooftop of this city. It is dazzlingly bright with its lights and neon billboards, a far cry from the dimly-illuminated streets of Germany in centuries past. Mitakihara, Japan. The year is 2011, and Walpurgisnacht shall come in a few days like it always has. That is a constant that Mephistopheles looks forward to, for in the waning between the last and first days of April and May respectively, he can remember. For now though, he sits and looks up to the starless sky.

“Incubator,” he says at last, “I’ve noticed that we share a lot in common.”

_You don’t have to refer to me as Incubator, Mephistopheles. I for one find that the name “Kyuubey” works just as well._

“Very well then, Kyuubey. We have quite a bit in common.”

His tail swishes in the cold wind. _Is that so? I’d appreciate your elaborating._

“Well, the entire rise and fall of a magical girl. It’s all very similar to my own bargainings with humans — I give them their wishes at the cost of their soul, and they always grow angry when they find that they gave up more than they would have like to.”

_…For instance?_

“That Miki girl. She grew so terribly upset when she found out that her soul, in fact, had been extracted and crystallized and that her body was a corpse she was maneuvering. One thing led to another, and it ended in despair — for her, mostly, but her friends as well.”

_She never bothered to ask, so I never bothered to answer her. Plenty of the girls never find out._

“That’s what led to Kyoko sacrificing her life, wasn’t it? She wanted to die as herself, and in the company of someone she’d grown to care for.”

_I suppose so, I never saw or felt what the girls did — I never understood why they felt the way they did. That, I think, is the key difference between you and I, Mephistopheles. I cannot feel let alone understand human emotion, but you can._

He’s felt it, unfortunately. He has felt love — a wicked, wicked emotion — for Faust above all others. 

“This all reminds me of the situation with a Dr. Heinrich Faust. He, too, ended up with more than he bargained for. I was delighted. I was so prepared for him to give himself up to me in exchange for his deepest desires! And he nearly did, before he was ‘saved’. He reminds me of one of your magical girls, Kyuubey.”

_Indeed? Which one of them?_

“I can’t remember her name for the life of me… The one with black hair and those piercing violet eyes, whose powers have to do with manipulating time—”

_You must mean Homura Akemi._

“Yes, Homura! That’s the one. There’s a certainty to her that reminds me a little of Faust… that’s not the sort of determination and drive you’d expect to find in a typical girl her age. Granted, she couldn’t be farther from a typical young girl. None of the five from this city are, really.”

_I’ve kept tabs on all the times she has tried to kill me, and it’s only recently that I was able to figure out her powers have to do with manipulation of time. It seems as though in the eighty and counting times that she has tried to kill me in this world that she has done everything she could to try and conceal her powers._

“She’s rather attached to Madoka Kaname, wouldn’t you say?”

_We initially thought that it was some sort of rivalry. We were aware of Madoka Kaname’s potential from the very beginning, and thought that Homura Akemi was jealous of her. That seems to not be the case, though, seeing as how she broke down shortly after trying to confess to Madoka that she was trying to protect her._

Mephistopheles laughs — a dry, short noise. “I don’t think it’s jealousy. I think she’s rather fond of Madoka, and she knew the truth about magical girls only being larvae for witches for a long, long time. I might even call it love.”

_Well, I wouldn’t know._

“I think that it’s sweet. A bit pathetic, but sweet. She’s so desperate to keep her beloved safe. And they’re all so young, too. Far younger than Gretchen — that was the girl Faust first loved, mind you. In his case it was more lust, I think. He didn’t really love her, I think, he just loved the eternal youth she represented.I always felt a bit bad for her.”

_I can’t see why. She was young and naive and made mistakes she shouldn’t have._

“Yes, but can you blame her? You know how prone to making mistakes youngsters are.”

He is quiet, mind occupied by thoughts of Homura cradling Madoka close as she carried her to safety, far away from the hellish orchestra playing in the witch’s labyrinth. Madoka’s a bit like Gretchen, it’s so clear in the wide brightness of her rosy pink eyes, her simultaneous enchantment and fear of the magic she didn’t always think was there. And there’s that same gentleness to them, Madoka wants nothing more than for everyone in her life to be alive and well and happy. Like Gretchen failed to have. It looks as though Madoka migh fail, too.

“I think Homura does love her. Really and truly.”

_To be fair, you would most likely know that._

“Homura sees a person. A kind and gentle person who wants to bring happiness to everyone around her and mean something, and she wants to give that girl happiness and safety in exchange. As to why I can’t say I know, but sometimes kindness seems to be enough. Like I said: A bit pathetic, but sweet. I feel sorry for her and Madoka, too.”

_You sound like you want to intervene and somehow help them._

“Oh no, I’m not going to do that. Considering we work along the same wavelength, I don’t think it’d be right of me to do more than observe. I do remember one time that one of my customers actually tricked me, though. He was a fellow named Cantuña, from Ecuador. Apparently, he wanted me to build the San Francisco Church Atrium. I said I would, for the usual price. I didn’t think he’d be smart enough to trick me. All it took was the removal of one brick and writing it in holy symbols so it wouldn’t fit back.”

_For as long as I can remember, no magical girl’s been able to trick me proper._

“Who knows? It might change.”

The night breeze rustles through Mephistopheles’ red-blond hair. He remembers Faust again, so bright and distant in a Heaven he should not occupy. He wants to change that, to drag Faust down to his level so he can remind him that for the longest time they weren’t so different. But there is only so much Mephistopheles can do.

_What makes you say that?_

“Well, it’s a bit like you said earlier…”

Mephistopheles watches the wind wrench a leave off a tree.

“…It seems as though we’re all encountering impossibilities as of late.”

**Author's Note:**

> ...i love them both and one is basically fanfic of the other, so a crossover was bound to happen :]
> 
> thank you for reading this! comments are always appreciated. <3


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